312 LeadershipHow Jesus Led

Whether you are a Christian or not, there is no denying that Jesus impacted the world. How did He do it? Within 3 years Jesus trained 12 leaders, hence 312 Leadership (three – twelve). These leaders (minus the one who betrayed him), referred to as disciples in the Bible, took on the leadership of the church after Jesus rose from the dead and went to heaven. In turn, they took the Gospel to the entire world.

Spiritual leaders, or any leaders for that matter, can we challenge ourselves to follow the example of Jesus and aim to raise up twelve leaders in three years?

If I started the count down today, could I leave my organization in three years with twelve leaders ready to take the helm?

I am not literally suggesting you should leave your church or ministry in three years, but could you? If you trained twelve leaders in three years, could you leave? Or, could those leaders be launched to lead twelve churches, ministries, or organizations?

As I reflect upon the last three years of my own leadership, I ask myself how many leaders have I raised up? I mean, strong, ambitious leaders—strong enough to take over the company I lead. I have invested in a handful, but certainly not twelve.

Some may wonder what leadership principles were exemplified by Jesus. Here is a summary of how Jesus led and modeled this to his disciplines. (As mentioned above, one of The Twelve betrayed him and was replaced by Paul soon after Jesus left the earth. so in reality, Jesus trained 12 leaders, but only 11 graduated the training)

He was on a mission.

He had a powerful vision.

He sacrificed to get there.

He worked on Himself—prayed, meditated on scripture, and fasted. He did not start His ministry until He was ready. (He was 30 years old.)

He developed relationships.

He connected with people.

He loved people.

He chose key people to invest in, His disciples.

He walked with them.

He let them observe Him.

He taught everyone and had many followers, but focused on building relationships, especially with His disciples.

Finally, he left when it was the right time.

Any student of leadership recognizes these principles as the core of strong, healthy leadership.

Finally, I want to talk to you about teaching versus raising leaders. Jesus taught so much to so many groups of people. However, it seems to me that his focus was not to preach exclusively to the masses, but to raise leaders who could carry His message forward without Him. He knew that the masses without leaders would scatter after his departure.

I humbly suggest that today’s spiritual leaders in the church have turned that model around. They preach to the masses, and have little focus on raising leaders. Oh, if our pastors preached less, if they raised more leaders (disciples), if they practiced 312 leadership and aimed to build twelve leaders in three years, the whole world could be changed.

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I can tell you that your team, organization—indeed your world as you know it—is waiting for you to be more, lead more, and impact more. How do we become better leaders? By learning and practicing healthy leadership daily.
Grow yourself. Impact others. Build healthy organizations. At Wes MD, we exist only to help you on that journey…your leadership journey.
~ Wes Saade, MD